Disastrous Decision Double-Downs Deepen Democratic Disapproval

The party needs to pivot, but can it?

(Note: Today’s post is too long for email and there’s nothing I can do about it. Check the website for the complete version!)

---

It’s been a very bad couple of weeks for the Democratic party. With public approval ratings that continue to (somehow) set record lows, the party is facing a major crossroads ahead of the 2026 midterms. (An election I think it’d be fair to say the Democrats feel they must win.) The path taken by the party in the next few months will likely set its path for the foreseeable future — and whether that ends with political resurrection or a political burial is up to Democratic politicians themselves.

Over the last few years we’ve seen a few major inflection points that cause people to leave the Democrats (and we’ll talk more about a few of them later), but the most recent was the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. After the murder, “normie” Democrats were faced with a barrage of posts celebrating Kirk’s death. We’re not talking about the rage-baiters who always throw bombs for “engagement,” we’re talking about family, “friends,” and co-workers on Facebook or in group chats.

Much like happened to the unvaccinated at the height of covid, people who don’t pay much attention to politics were faced with the realization their acquaintances see political rivals as actual enemies.

And the attitude that Kirk had it coming was pervasive:

(In polls, the wording of the question always matters, so here it is:)

Almost immediately after the reaction to the shooting, the online right jumped into action, sharing posts that celebrated the assassination. That, in turn, led to a mass of firings centered around the education and healthcare fields. (For obvious reasons, IMO.)

(I didn’t have to go far to find a local instance — Cornelius City Councilor John Colgan resigned after saying Kirk’s assassination ‘brightened up my day.’)

MSNBC was shocked and appalled that people could be combing through your social media posts and then punish you for things that you said!

I guess, like Jake Tapper, the anchor didn’t get the memo about all the government-coordinated censorship going on the last few years.

And with tensions already extremely high, we quickly got more examples of left-wing violence. First, an attempted plan to blow up a FOX News van.

The suspects, Adeeb Nasir, 58, and Adil Justice Ahmed Nasir, 31, are facing multiple charges, including threat of terrorism, possessing weapons of mass destruction and possessing explosive devices.

The device was found on Friday, Sept. 12 and determined to be real, FOX 13 reported. Officials said the device had been lit but “failed to function.”

After Jimmy Kimmel’s comments got him (temporarily) yanked from the air, Hernandez Santana fired a few rounds into his local ABC affiliate station.

A man suspected of firing a gun into the ABC affiliate’s office in California’s capital had written notes in his car that were critical of Donald Trump’s administration and a calendar reminder on his fridge to “do the next scary thing,” prosecutors said Monday.

Nobody was hurt in the shooting Friday into the lobby of the studios of ABC10 near downtown Sacramento. Local authorities arrested Anibal Hernandez Santana, 64, on Friday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied building. He was released hours later on $200,000 bail.

You read that last line correctly. With threatening notes in his car and after shooting into an occupied building, the California justice system let Santana continue to walk the streets! (The FBI picked him up hours later on federal charges.)

And obviously the tragic attack at the Dallas ICE facility is the most extreme example of recent political violence.

One person was killed and two people are in critical condition after a shooting at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Dallas on Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons identified the shooter as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

In all these instances (and the Kirk case itself), the media has pretended (with varying success) to be baffled by the motivation of the perpetrators. “If he hated ICE, why did he only shoot detainees?” (He fired blindly into the van.) “It’s just so cryptic, how can we ever really know?”

It’s a mystery!

But now even students at Georgetown are emboldened to condone political violence.

Of course, this ratcheting up of the violence hasn’t come out of nowhere. At college campuses, conservative speakers have been shouted down and forced to pay thousands of dollars for security — often with the end result of the event being canceled completely. Freeway shutdowns have become a common occurrence across the country. We all saw (and some were perhaps redpilled by) the “most peaceful protests” during the summer of 2020.

Here’s how it snowballs. The protestors see if they can get away with X (in this case, screaming in the face of a diner).

If they get away with that, then they add some Y (chasing diners off and property destruction).

If they get away with THAT, then they add some Z (looting or increased violence).

And for a long time, they’ve been getting away with it because the “leaders” of cities like Portland actually agree with the protestors. (I focus on Portland, but this is also happening in Illinois.) Even if lawbreakers are arrested, “Soros” DAs let them right back out on the street to commit more crimes. (Sometimes they refer to this as an “error”.)

Today, Donald Trump is (finally) putting an end to that.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the mayor of Portland is #RESISTing the President. (This letter is a real doozy, check it out!) Also to the surprise of nobody, the #RESISTANCE is joined by Oregon governor Tina Kotek.

Apologies, I’m not sure why the video of Kotek’s press conference was replaced by video of George Wallace, who famously fought against the federal government for his state’s right to discriminate by skin color. It must have been some sort of mix-up.

Regardless, Portland Antifa and other troublemakers are very happy to escalate the situation — they’ve literally been training for it for years. (Karlyn Borysenko is the best source for Antifa’s own primary sources that prove it!) Tomorrow, they plan on another “direct action” day and call for all sympathetic figures to join them.

So this is kind of where we’re at. Despite the fact that a prominent right-wing voice was publicly assassinated just a couple weeks ago, there have been no right-wing riots. Nobody had to board up their windows. It’s actually the left that’s continuing to ratchet up the rhetoric that (in their mind) excuses the violence.

On some level this makes sense. We’ve known for a while the media and Democrats are riling people up by claiming Trump is the End of America. They aren’t going to give up on their goal just because Charlie Kirk got assassinated. There are WAY more deaths to come in order to usher in the Glorious Revolution.

This is the great crossroads.

Democrats can continue down Oregon’s road of implosion and chaos, or they can immediately reject this type of political violence and start turning down the political temperature. If they choose the latter, there may some hope to pull the soft center back to the left. If they choose the former, they’re going to lose enough center voters that the actual extremists might take over the party — dooming it for the foreseeable future.

Guess which option they’re going with.

I apologize for almost 6 minutes of Jasmine Crockett, but this is an extremely educational video. In it, she denounces the “hateful” rhetoric of Charlie Kirk while highlighting how it’s okay — indeed, required — for her to spit heated rhetoric because Trump is basically Hitler.

Bernie is more right-to-the-point.

If only somebody could “figure out” a way to stop ICE……

I’ve sometimes talked about the “reverse snowball” of people who no longer trust the media — but the same is true of people who trust the Democratic party. With every new purity test pledge — Shut down for covid! Mask up! Boys should compete against girls! Open Borders! Let the homeless do drugs on the sidewalk! — some of that soft middle falls away. Every issue where Democrats are on the wrong side of the 80/20 split, they lose the confidence of the voters.

Remember, Tulsi Gabbard ran for president as as Democrat in 2020. RFK Jr. ran as a Democrat in 2024 until they ran him out of the party! Even Trump was a Democrat not that long ago!

As a result of these terrible policy stances, the party is trailing behind the Republicans on almost every important national issue.

Despite everything, I still hope the Democratic party can regain some semblance of normalcy. Just like Portland itself, I’m rooting for common sense to prevail and a pivot to good governance, not mindless mantras. The country is far better off with two real parties standing up for the rights of Americans.

I’m just afraid that either Democratic politicians don’t understand the crossroads they face, or they don’t care about the consequences of continuing down the path they’re on. Neither option fills me with optimism.

If you like what you read, buy me a coffee on Ko-fi — no subscription required!

Edit to add some fresh hot takes from Kamala Harris this evening:

---

Since this is already too long, might as well include a photo of Bonnie as an apology for the Crockett video.